Proton on Altcoins:
Since Bitcoin is free open source software, anyone can take the code, modify it, and run their own network. The tokens of these alternative networks are known as altcoins. Some of these altcoins tried to improve on Bitcoin, such as by increasing the blocksize as discussed with Bitcoin Cash. Others were simply ponzi schemes pumped up by individuals looking to defraud people who didn’t understand the difference, leading to the term “shitcoins”.
Many altcoins were pre-mined by their creators, who got a large fraction of the tokens, before launching to the general public. The creators of these altcoins were then extremely financially motivated to market their coins. Most altcoins were centrally controlled and quickly changed, in contrast to Bitcoin, which by design has been incredibly difficult to change. This proliferation of altcoins and other unsustainable businesses became known as “crypto” and has taken attention and market share away from Bitcoin. Most of these altcoins provided no value to the world, could not find market fit, and collapsed, causing millions of individuals to lose billions.
The key things that differentiate Bitcoin are the network and protocol. Bitcoin has the largest network and its network effect draws in more users, further increasing its utility as a global monetary network and the value of BTC. Altcoins simply cannot compete even if they have some perceived advantages such as higher throughput or privacy. As more merchants and consumers around the world adopt Bitcoin, the network effect should continue to strengthen.
Bitcoin is also a digital protocol for money on the internet, and with protocols, it’s almost always winner-takes-all. In the early decades of the internet, there were the Protocol Wars and eventually the world converged to use the same protocols to communicate. For example, we all use TCP/IP to send traffic over the internet, we all use HTTP to browse the web, and we all use SMTP to send emails. Bitcoin, and its higher layers such as the Lightning Network, is currently the dominant open protocol for sending value on the internet.
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Mauve at least load a landing page?
